Yes, the Bourbons were such good friends of the Catholic Church. Right. The French Revolution was bad, but its attempt to the control the French Church was built on the Gallican aspirations of the Bourbons.

I have no stake in the matter personally, St. Guy, but I do think the Bourbons have the better claim. I have not investigated the matter sufficiently, but I have been told that the Orleanist compromise was a Masonic effort (there's that word again, cdg), and under the Salic law the Duc d'Anjou, styled Louis XX, would be the legitimate King. The current Orleanist pretender is the Comte de Paris, I think. But he is only 80th or so in line from the legitimist perspective.

And though all royal lines have sins and successes, that doesn't touch the matter of the rightful heir. That is part of the problem of dynastic monarchy, as Latinmassgirl would be quick to point out.

I once heard it said that the benefit of monarchy is that there is no impediment should a good man accidentally become king, whereas in democracy the worst men are guaranteed to win the presidency.

It is a major faux-pas for the Duc d'Anjou, Louis XX de iure Roi de France et de Navarre, to be wearing a BELT dressed in white tie. And what was he doing wearing his sash under his waistcoat at the gala dinner of the evening of the wedding of H.S.H. the Prince of Monaco?

What is Madame, his wife, doing with that most plunging of bodices? C'est scandaleux!

The tragedy is that Bourbons threw away a perfect opportunity to return to the throne when Henri, comte de Chambord, declined an offer in the 1870's by the French state because they would not replace the Tricolor as the official flag of state. (A laudable sentiment, but one better indulged once he was back in power.) The Bourbons have never come so close again to regaining the throne.

But that has often been the way of the Bourbons, of whom Talleyrand's epigram ("They have forgotten nothing and they have learned nothing") has too often rung true. If they look better now, it is in comparison to what has followed. And I wonder what compromises young Louis Alphonse would be subject to if (however unlikely) he were offered the crown today. The Tricolor would be the least of his worries: he need only look at what has become of his cousin Juan Carlos.

A Day That Will Live in Glory

Pray for the Four Cardinals: Burke, Caffarra, Meiser and Brandmuller

“You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day."